News and Announcements 5/2/12

Today menu includes a new Brill acquisition; Barnes & Noble partners with Microsoft on etextbooks; the Bodleian needs volunteers; an NEH grant for the Univ. of Florida Libraries; and new membership surveys from OCLC

Not only has Brill acquired the Foreign Law Guides, evidently they plan to “invest in the design and implementation of a new content platform engineered to enhance the overall user experience.” In addition, the founding editors of the Foreign Law Guides will remain and team with “a new and expanded editorial group” to “provide continuity in editorial policy and standards.” Hans van der Meij, Publishing Director International Law at Brill, comments “We are extremely pleased to have been able to acquire this prestigious database, which is highly praised for its usefulness by law schools and corporate law firms alike. The Foreign Law Guide is a perfect fit for our portfolio…”

“Barnes & Noble is spinning off its college-textbook and digital divisions into a new subsidiary, bolstered by a $300-million investment by Microsoft, that is aimed at turning more college students on to electronic textbooks.

The partnership, which officials announced on Monday as the two companies were settling a patent dispute, isn’t likely to change the day-to-day operations of the nearly 700 campus bookstores that are managed by Barnes & Noble, said Jamie Iannone, president of Barnes & Noble Digital Projects. But he said it should “accelerate the adoption of e-reading in the college space…” (Image from barnesandnoble.com)

“Members of the public are being asked to help describe 4,000 music pieces from the Bodleian Libraries’ collections, as part of a new project launched today. What’s the score at the Bodleian? (www.whats-the-score.org) is the first crowd-sourcing project undertaken by the Bodleian Libraries. About 4,000 pieces of popular piano music from the mid-Victorian period have been digitized and made available online. The music was mostly produced for domestic entertainment, and many of these scores have illustrated or decorative covers and advertisements. The collection has never been included in the library’s catalogue, and its exact contents are therefore unknown…”

INFOdocket reports that “to prepare for the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine in 2015, the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries has been awarded $265,000 to build an online collection of hidden and fragile resources related to colonial St. Augustine….”